Thomas Magruder

Thomas Magruder (died 1880) was an American railroad tycoon and one of the most powerful men in the American West during the 1870s and early 1880s. A Confederate States Army veteran from Texas, Magruder built large railroads, including one connecting Dodge City in Kansas to Empire City in New Mexico; he fought against the Apache and built a reputation for himself as a cruel man. Magruder was killed by Colton White in 1880 in revenge for Magruder's murder of White's family.

American Civil War service
Thomas Magruder served as a Captain in the Texas Mounted Rifles of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, and his company was kept in Texas for much of the war. In 1864, he succeeded in petitioning the government in Richmond to allow him to lead an expedition to search for the fabled Apache city of Quivira, which was said to have been made from gold. His cavalrymen marched through a canyon to find an Apache village, where Magruder found Dr. Campbell, the only white man who knew the location of the city. Magruder demanded to know where the Cross of Coronado, a sacred relic, was located; Campbell feigned ignorance, but Sergeant Clay Allison located the Cross for Magruder. Magruder proceeded to have the village massacred for its defiance, personally beheading Campbell with a stroke of his saber; Campbell's Apache wife shot Magruder in the eye with a rifle before being gunned down by the cavalry. Magruder shot soldier Ned White in the shoulder after he protested about his actions, and Magruder believed White to be dead; he left with his men after the massacre had been committed.

Railroad tycoon
Thomas Magruder would become a railroad tycoon after the end of the war, using his experience with fighting against Native Americans to build railroads from the Midwest to the American Southwest. Magruder became a very wealthy person, and he placed several powerful people on his payroll, including US Army officer Sergeant Hollister, the "jack preacher" Josiah Reed, and Empire City mayor Hoodoo Brown. Magruder sought to locae Quivira even after the end of the Civil War in 1865, and he harassed several people about the city's location. In 1880, the Cross of Coronado was stolen from him by a prostitute named Sadie, who stored it on the riverboat Morning Star on the Missouri River. Ned White sought to retrieve it, but Magruder sent Josiah Reed and some renegade soldiers to retrieve it first. Ned White and his adoptive son Colton White held off the renegades until the boat exploded, with only Colton surviving the attack; the cross sank to the bottom of the river after the riverboat's explosion. Magruder cut off Reed's ear as punishment for this.

Colton White would prove to be an obstacle in Magruder's path, especially when he killed Brown's deputies J.J. Webb and Dave Rudabaugh in Empire City after they killed two unarmed farmers at a ranch run by the outlaw Jose Chavez y Chavez. Reed, who was living in Empire, would proceed to kill a prostitute named Jenny, who assisted White in heading to Empire City; Magruder had her murder pinned on White. White would manage to escape from prison alongside Soapy Jennings and the outlaw Port, and they would join Clay Allison's resistance in the mountains and fight against Magruder and his henchmen.